Latics and England

I believe the Trust were given assurances that no more wage payments would be missed. Off the back of that we have missed them at exactly the same point in the season that we always do. This has to be a major concern all round. Not only is it apparent that we are allowing history to repeat itself, the Trust clearly are far from in the loop. The statement they have put out shows that until this was broken by Keegan they knew nothing. Abdallah has indicated that he welcomes the involvement of the Trust and for a time seemed to heavily involve Simon Brooke in what he was doing. It seems that was nothing but lip service. Here we go again...

Latics 3 - 1 Shez H/t 1-0 Surridge 4,799

Mansfield 1 - 1 Oldham H/t 0-0 Gardner 3,748

Swindon 2 - 1 Oldham h/t 1-0 Gardner 6,267

Absolutely nothing wrong with fish, chips and gravy... but the gravy from the choppy on the pier was way to thick, almost jelly.

Latics 2 - 1 Colchester H/t 1 - 0 Lang 4,316

Grimsby 1 - 2 Latics H/t 0-0 Gardner 4,759

Latics 1-1 Newport H/t 1-0 Surridge 4,346

Latics 2 Crawley 1 H/t 0-0 Gardner 4,014

Morecambe 1 Latics 3 h/t 0-2 Surridge 3,365

Yeovil 2 Latics 1 H/t 1-0 Gardner 2,358

I am delighted that we have got a statement. It has felt as though the club has been shrouded in secrecy these last few months. The tone is very positive and that is just what we want to hear. The comments about cleaning up the mess that has been left behind by the former owner stacks up and explains Abdallah' s urgency in getting Corney completely out of the club. No more HMRC debts is fantastic news. My fear that he has already blown the money that he had available for developing the club have not been allayed by this statement and it would still be lovely to hear about the plan he has for the club. Whilst the statement has high level hopes there is nothing which tells us what we should expect in specific time periods. I will want to know what we are hoping to achieve this season. If it is about consolidating and that is going to lead to a realistic chance of challenging for promotion next season then tell us. That might take a bit of pressure off the manager from the fans. It would, however, mean that we would have to challenge next year. I also don't like the inference that when we sack Byrne (and that now feels inevitable) it will have been Frankie's decision. That doesn't feel consistent with what was said last night in the post-match interview. Overall it is a step forward but there are still plenty of unanswered questions, many of which will actually need actions rather than words.

Latics 3 - 1 Macc H/t 1-0 Lang 4,132

FGR 2 - 1 OAFC H/t 1-1 O'Grady 3,653

When we went on that run just after Wellens took over he was our most important player and we wouldn't have done anything like as well without him. Our game was built of the speed with which we could break and that was largely down to the way he played. I would love to know what went wrong because we quickly stopped playing that way. It is easy to say that other teams learnt how to stop us but I don't think that was the case, we just changed how we were playing. When it boiled down to his goalkeeping ability, he was found out too many times and so I am pleased to see someone else, who hopefully is a better shot stopper, in our starting line up. Good luck to him. He was such a big part of what was (for a short period) the best football we have played in years.

Latics 3 - 1 MK Dons h/t 1-0 Coke 3,924

Absolutely love the thought that we have a clear policy on something. Feels somewhat unlikely.

Over the last 4 weeks I have felt totally engaged with this England team and it's manager. They fell short but I believed in what they were trying to achieve. In my view, for the first time in a long time the whole was more than the sum of the parts. It has only made me too aware of how long it is since I felt that way about Oldham Athletic. I will be there this season and I will give them my full support but I need something back from them. Togetherness and commitment would be a lovely start.

Capoise, Don Bosco and Mirebalais away. We might as well take advantage of the connections we have got.

Nobody will be able to complete the 92 solely watching Latics as still plenty we haven’t visited. Maybe clubs, but definitely not grounds. Only 2 new grounds for me at the moment next season (Newport and FGR). Hopefully add Boreham Wood to that.

Except 3 months wasn't anywhere near long enough to judge any of those managers. Just because the previous owner repeatedly made some ridiculous decisions doesn't make it an appropriate policy going forward.

The innovative undersoil heating we installed almost 40 years ago

The piece of the plastic pitch with Redders' penalty spot on it

FCUM is a concept that I never understood. If the fans had genuinely fallen out of love with professional football there were hundreds of clubs tgey could have supported. Setting up their own did nothing to help non-league football. One bumper crowd a season for clubs on the same division was offset with significant policing costs. The strangest thing was that they all kept their old affiliation. They still sing about United and watch United on TV. I'm sure at one point they even arranged matches so that they didn't clash.

There probably is a difference. I guess we have a rivalry with everyone. I guess I am taking about disliking rather than simply having a rivalry. We have spent many seasons on the same league as Walsall and Scunthorpe so you could say we have built up a rivalry of sorts but I have no strong feelings about either.